James Harden defending Kobe Bryant

Obviously, Thunder fans weren’t excited about Sunday’s outcome, but there were things to be encouraged about. Even excited about. One being the way James Harden played Kobe Bryant in the fourth quarter.

If Harden is ready to play defense like that on a consistent basis, there’s no way you can possibly keep him out of the starting lineup, or at the least, from 30-plus minutes a night.

Clearly, Harden was not backing down from Kobe, even as Kobe tried to repeatedly back him down. Harden played Kobe physical, always keeping a hand or at least some part of his body on him. He stayed down on pump fakes, swiped at the ball and even got a little chippy with Kobe. I love it.

Harden has come a long, long way as a defender since last season. He’s becoming a lot more disciplined and is understanding help defense much better. He has terrific hands and is strong, long and athletic. There’s no reason he can’t be a stopper himself to go along with a solid offensive game.

Westbrook is easily one of the most athletic players in the league, however he needs to learn not to rely on it. Now teams study him and realize a certain degree of predictabilty. He needs to learn craftiness, i.e., utilizing patterns against defensivee strategies. He needs to ne able to be more deceptive, drive and kick out, recognize that when a defense collapses on him. many others are open. He, like Durant rely to much on their superior athleticism to beat everyone, but when teams like lakers, spurs, etc, prepare to defend us, it seems like its almsot too easy to implement a strategy. Because they are so gifted, the often could make it happen, but i fear that we are going to continue to struggle or get knocked out of the playoffs until our two heros learn how to set up a ruse, or be a decoy, know where the others on the court are once they drive. I rarely see russ or KD take an uncontested shot in the half court, while i see, Lebron, Kobe, Wade amd other top twenty players do it all the time. This has got to be because of their predictablity amd lack of craft, amd too offensive scheming, but they have alot to learn, and once they learn how to usr defensive schemes against themselves, they wont have to work so. hard to create their own shot

It's hard to know. There aren't many centers out there. Nene, Gasol. Perkins is probably the third best, depending on how you feel about Chandler long term. Brendan Haywood got more than what Perkins extended for. I'd say we certainly got him below current market value, and probably under fair market value at worst on a new CBA.

@steve.thunderfanCan't resign RW until July 1st. It will be just like KD/JG situation last year. Presti will be at RW's door 12:01am July 1. If they can't work it out by Oct 31st, RW is a RFA at the end of the year. But, RW is not eligible for an extension right now, so he can't have hard feelings yet. Perk was eligible for an extension at any time.

"By simultaneously acquiring cap space with the underpaid Kenny Perk, OKC can now do a Blatche with him. OKC can use their cap space to renegotiate Perkins's current $4,640,208 salary up to as much $6,696,720. From there, they can concurrently offer a new four year extension totalling a a maximum of $33,818,436, or any number below that that they feel happier with.

Add in the extra negotiated salary, and that's over $35 million for four years that OKC can theoretically offer him, as-near-as-is $9 million per. In contrast, Boston could only offer circa $6 million per. It's a significant difference"

You're taking Cousins' numbers completely out of context. Ibaka's efficient because he takes easy shots. He's set up for almost everything, whether it's a jump shot or a dunk. He doesn't turn it over because he rarely dribbles or passes. Cousins creates offense for others with his nifty passing, he can handle the ball, and he creates a lot more of his own offense.

Cousins has far more natural ability than Ibaka. Ibaka may be more valuable now as a role player but it's hard to believe that Cousins won't harness some of his talent; he has the skill set to be a first option offensively and the size to be a legitimate defensive player as well. You may bet against him because of his attitude and coaching situation, that's all I can think of.

@KeithMonroe's shown some offensive efficiency but he doesn't have Ibaka's athletic upside and defensive ability.

DMC is a turnover machine, 3.1 turnovers in 27 minutes a game (compared to Ibaka's outstanding 0.8 turnovers in 26 minutes a game), and very inefficient, with a 48% true shooting percentage (compared with Ibaka's outstanding 59% true shooting percentage).

"Jeff (Green) is probably one of the most versatile guys I've been around. He does a lot of things that, he just makes it look simple. I can't put it into words right now. I'm glad he's an addition to our team."

"I'm embracing this new relationship with Jeff (Green) and Chris (Krstic). Chris is very versatile. I didn't know he was that good an offensive rebounder. He's very active. Just learning small things about them, what they like to do. I'm pretty sure we're going to be OK with those guys."

Thunder247 :Thabo is the worst offensive player in the entire league (that includes Ben Wallace) and is a defensive liability. I know he is getting a lot of recognition because of the “job” he did on Kobe but really I think he did really poorly. I think that 90% of the time Kobe gets more superstar calls then anybody so I can’t believe that I am about to say this but Thabo fouled Kobe about 5 times that were blatant fouls that were not called. He was biting on every fake and somehow ended up with the ball or the block. I was not at all impressed with his D. In LA he would have fouled out in the first quarter. Harden on the other hand played Kobe perfectly; he never bit on fake, stayed in front of him (for the most part) and contested every shot without fouling.So in short, take Thabo out and replace him on the starting lineup with Harden to improve the starting offense and defense. Take Thabo out of the second unit (at the 2) and put cook in to improve the offense of the second unit and just have him back up Durant at the 3 for about 9 minutes a game.Also I hate Kobe.

this is one of the most ridiculous posts in a long time... did you heard what SVG had to say about Thabos D against Kobe?

Have you even watched Ibaka this year. He has caught a lot of passes that he turns into good pick and pops (Utah game), has gone ISO and dribbled and created (Orlando game), shot the 3 ball well (Rookie-Soph game), admit haven't seen him pass the ball that much, he's also had some games where he has done some crazy fade away jump shots and decent spin post moves. Sure, he needs to do these things on a more consistent bases but to say he cannot do them at all is a little ridiculous. Remember he started playing at 16 and is only 21 years old. That being said, I would love K-Love on this team. Oh, let the rumors be true and come to fruition

@DXLBetter than Cousins, who can drop 20 and 10 on most anybody? Even Greg Monroe is starting to look like the guy he was expected to be - strong rebounder, incredibly smart and skilled player, better than average shooter, improving defender.

I like Ibaka as much as the next guy, but let's be honest, he's not shown the kind of star capacity that one would expect out of a top 5 pick. He's great at what he does, but is poor enough in other areas to limit his overall greatness. I mean, we can't just give him a pass for being unable to dribble, catch a pass, make a pass, or score on his own.